In the latest international briefing for the EPO, Jakob Pade Frederiksen looks at the law around the patenting of plant and animal varieties as well as biological processes for the production of plants and animals

Lawyers from IBM and other artificial intelligence-focused businesses have welcomed the EPO’s new guidelines, but say kinks in the examination approach to the technology in Europe and elsewhere need to be ironed out and then harmonised

A sudden influx of new players with standard essential patents into the automotive market is causing conflict between automotive companies and their driverless-car suppliers over who should take a licence in the supply chain

Topics discussed at our recent European Patent Forum USA included the potential timeline for Germany ratifying the UPC, FRAND after Unwired Planet v Huawei, the patentability of computer-implemented inventions at the EPO, patent enforcement strategies in Europe and hot tubbing of experts in the UK

Associations including CITMA, ECTA, INTA and MARQUES have published position papers discussing IP rights when the UK leaves the EU in March 2019. Managing IP looks at the biggest issues, including registered EU rights, pending applications, exhaustion and representation

Jesper Kongstad has stepped down as head of Denmark's Patent and Trade Mark Office and joined IP firm Zacco. In this interview, he reflects on recent changes and challenges for national IP offices and the EPO

UK patent practitioners are in agreement that the UK Supreme Court’s decision in Eli Lilly v Actavis introduced the doctrine of equivalents into UK patent law, but there seems to be some doubt as to whether it also introduced a general doctrine of prosecution history estoppel. Kingsley Egbuonu analyses the decision and its impact on law and practice in the UK

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that a patentee can argue that the scope of protection afforded by its patent extends beyond the ambit of the claims. In its ruling in Eli Lilly v Actavis, the Court also provided guidance on when reference to EPO prosecution file would be appropriate in interpreting a patent in infringement cases

Karolina Wiktorson and Benjamin Hoffmann of Valea review cases relating to the question of contributory infringement, and ask whether the outcome of these may change once the UPC Agreement comes into force